Unease cancels Hooksett 8th-grade trip to Washington, D.C.

HOOKSETT - Citing security concerns in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, the Hooksett School District has cancelled a trip its 8th graders were to take today to Washington, D.C.

"We feel there are safety concerns with our students being in the District of Columbia at this time," school board Chairman Trisha Korkosz said Wednesday night.

Korkosz said the board was concerned about the trip following Monday's bombings in Boston, in which three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and 176 were injured.

She said 107 students and 11 chaperones were going to go to the nation's capitol today and come back Sunday. Several cities, including Washington, placed themselves on heightened states of alert after the bombings.

Korkosz said the board understands parents and students will not be pleased by the decision.

"It was a very difficult decision," she said. "We certainly appreciate that families are very upset about this and students are very upset."

She said the district will try to get the students to Washington soon.

"We will be working with our travel agent to reschedule them for a time when the District of Columbia is not in a heightened state of security," she said.

When Craig Atkinson watched the police response in the days following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, he was in awe. The son of a SWAT team officer, Craig could barely believe that the vehicles...